Dyeim appaeatus



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

E. WOOD. DYEING APPARATUS.

No.'405,141. Pa tentedJune 11,1889.

INVENTOR 4M3 (N0 Model 2 Sheets-Sheet E. WOOD.

DYEING APPARATUS.-

No. 405,141. PatentedJune 11, 1889. v

WITNESSES; I $5 MMQVENTORF UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELLIS l/VOOD, OF LEEDS, COUNTY OF YORK, ENGLAND.

DYEING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 405,141, dated June 11, 1889.

Application filed January 24, 1888. Serial No. 261,807. (No model.) Patented in England January 24, 1887, No. 1,048.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELLIS WOOD, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and a resident of Leeds, Yorkshire, England, have invented certain Improvements ii'rDyein'g and Milling Machines, (for whicli'I have obtained a patent in Great Britain bearing date January 24, 1887, No. 1,048,) of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in burl-dyeing machines and milling-machines; and the object of my invention is to provide a machine of this character with an automatic reversing mechanism. In this class of machines the strip of fabric to be dyed is passed back and forth from a roller mounted on the dye-vat at one side to a similar roller mounted on the vat. at the opposite side, being unwound from one roller while it is wound upon the other. In going from one roller to the other the fabric passes under a guide-roller in the vat, whereby it is forced to pass through the dye-liquor. The attendant, by means of a lever, shifts a sliding clutch on the main driving-shaft, and thus at will throws either one of the winding-on rollers into gearwith the shaft, and the other out of gear, simultaneously, whereby the motion of the fabric is reversed. This shifting takes place when the fabric has all been removed from one roller, and thus the fabric may be -made to pass through the dye as often as desired.

The purpose of my invention is to provide means for automatically shifting the clutch 011 the driving-shaft through the medium of the moving fabric itself, whereby, whatever may be the length of the piece to be dyed, the motion will be reversed whenever all of it shall have been unwound from the windingon roller. This automatic shifting mechanism renders the presence of an attendant unnecessary.

My invention will be fully described hereinafter, and its novel features carefully defined in the claims.

In the drawings which serve to illustrate my invention, Figure 1 is a vertical transverse section of a burl-dyeing machine provided with my automatic reversing mechanism, and Fig. 2 is a plan of that portion of the machine where my improvements are situated. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are detached fragmentary views illustrating the operation of my improvements. These views will be more particularly referred to hereinafter.

A is' an ordinary dye-vat, and L M are the two winding-on rollers mounted rotatively in bearings on the vat.

G is the main or driving shaft, on which are mounted two clutch bevel-wheels H and I, which mesh, respectively, with bevel-wheels J and K on theproj ectingjournals of the rollersL and M. On the main driving-shaft Gis splined a clutch N, which may be slipped to and fro longitudinally on the shaft, and thus be made to engage and drive either of the clutchwheels H or I at will. The clutch is actuated by a shifting-lever T in a well-known way. The fabric being dyed passes under one or more rollers O P in the vat A.

So far as above described the construction is substantially the same as that ordinarily employed.

I mount in the vat a roller 0, and above this roller I mount another roller B, which is preferably smaller than roller C.- These I call nipping-rollers. The journals on the ends of rollers B and 0 adjacent to the drivingshaft project out through the side of vat A, and on the journal of roller 0 issecured afriction-wheel D, (seen in Fig. 5, which is an end view of this part of the mechanism,) and this wheel is embraced by a strap D which has a fork e on its upper side. The roller B simply rests by gravity on roller 0, and it is susceptible of being raised or lowered in its bearings. Its journal that projects out over the frictionwheel D stands between thebranches of the fork e on strap D, normally, and prevents said strap from rotating with wheel D, as it would do if not checked. Coupled to strap D at one side is a rod a, which extends upward and through an aperture in a bracket '0 on an arm E, hinged to the frame of the machine. This construction is best illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, which are side views of this portion of the machine. On the rod 0. are two adjustable collars a and a one above and the other below bracket 0. A downward pull on rod a causes the upper collar a to catch on bracket 0 and tilt the arm E forward until the anti-friction rollers cl carried thereby rest on the clutch N, as seen in Fig. 4, while an F, and rollers d is precisely like that compris in g the rod (1, collars a and a arm E, and rollers (I, and operates in precisely the same way, it will not be necessary to minutely describe both the devices. The purpose of arms E and F and their respective anti-friction rollers is to shift the clutch N alternately, and this they accomplish as follows: hen the arm E is drawn down, (as in Fig. 4,) one of its rollers (l engages a camshoulder S 011 the clutch, and thus drives the latter over into engagement with clutch-wheel I. Similarly,when the arm F is drawn down, one of its rollers (Z' engages a cam-shoulder R on the clutch and drives the latter over into engagement with clutchwheel II. These arms E and F are actuated by the moving fabric in the manner I will now describe.

A piece of canvas (as in Fig. 1) is attached to each end of the fabric (y in Fig. 1) to be dyed, and the free ends of these pieces of canvas are secured, respectively, to the winding-on rollers L and M. The object in using these pieces of canvas is to enable the whole of the strip of fabric to enter the dye in the vat, which it could not do if its ends were secured to the rollers. On each piece of canvas is secured a strip f of wood or other suitable material, which forms a lifter, the functions of which will be hereinafterexplained. The strip of fabric with the pieces of canvas atta'ched is passed over one winding-on roller, as L, then down into the vat and under a guide-roller O, thence up and between the nipping-rollers B and C, thence down under a guide-roller I, and thence up to the other winding-on roller, as M, to which the end of the canvas is attached. The clutch N is now moved along shaft G until it engages clutchwheel I, when roller M will be set in motion and will wind up the fabric. hen nearly all the fabric is wound upon roller M and the canvas on the other end of the strip has begun to pass over the roller L, the clutch is disengaged and the other canvas attached to and wrapped on roller L. This is substantially the position of the part-s seen in Fig. 1, where one of the lifters f is seen descending and about half-way between the roller L and the roller 0. The exact length of the piece of canvas and the exact position of the lifter f thereon are not very material. In Fig. 1 the line of junction of the canvas 50 with the fabric 7] is directly under the nippingroller B.

The reason for attaching strips of canvas to the ends of the fabric while it is being dyed has been stated. They may be each two or three yards long and secured to the fabric byafew stitches. After the fabric has been dyed these strips of canvas will be ripped 7c enter the dye in the vat.

After making fast and winding the surplus canvas on roller L the roller M is again set in motion and it continues to wind on the fabric until the lifter f reaches the nipping-rollers B and C; but in passing under roller 13 said So lifter raises up said roller 13 until its j ournal (see Fig. 5) is lifted out of fork 6, when the rotating friction-wheel D will 'at once acton the strap D and turn it in such a manner as to draw down rod 1) and arm F, in the manner 8 before described, thereby shifting the clutch N into engagement with the clutch-wheel II. Simultaneously with the descent of rod 1) and arm F the strap D pushes up rod to and arm E. The roller L now begins to revolve and 9 to wind up the canvas and fabric, and this will continue until the lifter f on the other end reaches the nipping-rollers, when the clutch will be again shifted. This lifter f thus becomes a controller carried by the 9 fabric for automatically controlling the shifter, which latter comprises the mechanism whereby the winding-on rollers are connected alternately with the driver or shaft G.

It will be observed that when the lifter f 1 has entered the bite of the nipping-rollers and raised roller B high enough to allow the fork c to turn to one side the journal of roller l3 drops down again, because the reversal of the motion withdraws the lifter and it catches be- I hind one prong of fork c in its descent, thus holding the strap and fork against rotation back again to its first position; but when the strip of fabric is wound up on the other roller the other lifter again raises roller 1 and this 1 time the journal of the roller, in its descent, again drops into fork c. The lifters pass readily around the rollers O and P, as the n.

roller from which the fabric unwinds .free i i to turn. These lifters also roll up with the i fabric on the rollers L and M.

In order to insure the full shift of the clutch N, I prefer to employ the usual. shifting-lever t T, which I provide with a weight T at its upl per end. 'When this lever is brought to a I point a little beyond the vertical, it will topple over, in. a manner well. understood, and insure the engagement of the clutch.

llaving thus described my invention, I claim I 1. In a dyeing-machine wherein the fabric is passed back and forth. between winding-on rollers, the combination, with said rollers, of a shifter for eonnectin g said rollers alternately with the d river, and a controller consisto is passed back and forth between winding-on rollers, the combination, with said rollers and their gears and the splined clutch provided with cams, of the two hinged arms provided with anti-friction rollers, against which the cams act, the rods which actuate the said arms connected, respectively, to opposite sides of the friction-strap D the said frictionstrap, its wheel D, secured to the journal of the lower nipping-roller, the upper liftingroller mounted as set forth and its journal engaging a fork on the strap D and lifters carried by the fabric which passes between the said nipping-rollers, whereby when one of said lifters enters between said rollers and r5 raises the journal of the upper roller out of said fork the friction-strap D will be released, as set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing 20 witnesses.

ELLIS WOOD. 

